Over the past 5 years, a great deal of attention has been paid to the development of early warning systems for dropout prevention. These warning systems use a set of indicators based on official ...school records to identify youth at risk for dropout and then appropriately target intervention. The current study builds on this work by assessing the extent to which a school disengagement warning index predicts not only dropout but also other problem behaviors during middle adolescence, late adolescence, and early adulthood. Data from the Rochester Youth Development Study (N = 911, 73% male, 68% African American, and 17% Latino) were used to examine the effects of a school disengagement warning index based on official 8th and 9th grade school records on subsequent dropout, as well as serious delinquency, official offending, and problem substance use during middle adolescence, late adolescence, and early adulthood. Results indicate that the school disengagement warning index is robustly related to dropout as well as serious problem behaviors across the three developmental stages, even after controlling for important potential confounders. High school dropout mediates the effect of the warning index on serious problem behaviors in early adulthood.
Abstract Purpose We use full-matching propensity score models to test whether developmentally specific measures of maltreatment, in particular childhood-limited maltreatment versus adolescent ...maltreatment, are causally related to involvement in crime, substance use, health-risking sex behaviors, and internalizing problems during early adulthood. Methods Our design includes 907 participants (72% male) in the Rochester Youth Development Study, a community sample followed from age 14 to age 31 with 14 assessments, including complete maltreatment histories from Child Protective Services records. Results After balancing the data sets, childhood-limited maltreatment is significantly related to drug use, problem drug use, depressive symptoms, and suicidal thoughts. Maltreatment during adolescence has a significant effect on a broader range of outcomes: official arrest or incarceration, self-reported criminal offending, violent crime, alcohol use, problem alcohol use, drug use, problem drug use, risky sex behaviors, self-reported sexually transmitted disease diagnosis, and suicidal thoughts. Conclusions The causal effect of childhood-limited maltreatment is focused on internalizing problems, whereas adolescent maltreatment has a stronger and more pervasive effect on later adjustment. Increased vigilance by mandated reporters, especially for adolescent victims of maltreatment, along with provision of appropriate services, may prevent a wide range of subsequent adjustment problems.
There is a growing literature on intergenerational studies of antisocial behavior and a growing understanding of the unique contributions they are likely to make. At the same time, the field has yet ...to agree on core design features for intergenerational study. In this article, I propose a set of defining design elements that all intergenerational studies should meet and I discuss the advantages of these studies for enhancing our understanding of the onset and course of delinquent careers. I then use data from the ongoing Rochester Intergenerational Study to illustrate these points and the potential yield of intergenerational studies. In particular, I examine intergenerational continuities in antisocial behavior and school disengagement, test the cycle of violence hypothesis to see whether a history of maltreatment increases the likelihood of perpetration of maltreatment, and estimate a structural equation model to help identify mediating pathways that link parents and children with respect to antisocial behavior.
In this article, the authors critically review the literature testing the cycle of maltreatment hypothesis which posits continuity in maltreatment across adjacent generations. That is, the authors ...examine whether a history of maltreatment victimization is a significant risk factor for the later perpetration of maltreatment. The authors begin by establishing 11 methodological criteria that studies testing this hypothesis should meet. They include such basic standards as using representative samples, valid and reliable measures, prospective designs, and different reporters for each generation. The authors identify 47 studies that investigated this issue and then evaluate them with regard to the 11 methodological criteria. Overall, most of these studies report findings consistent with the cycle of maltreatment hypothesis. Unfortunately, at the same time, few of them satisfy the basic methodological criteria that the authors established; indeed, even the stronger studies in this area only meet about half of them. Moreover, the methodologically stronger studies present mixed support for the hypothesis. As a result, the positive association often reported in the literature appears to be based largely on the methodologically weaker designs. Based on this systematic methodological review, the authors conclude that this small and methodologically weak body of literature does not provide a definitive test of the cycle of maltreatment hypothesis. The authors conclude that it is imperative to develop more robust and methodologically adequate assessments of this hypothesis to more accurately inform the development of prevention and treatment programs.
Increasingly, three generation studies have investigated intergenerational (IG) continuity and discontinuity in substance use and related problem behaviors. However, surprisingly little attention has ...been paid to the conceptual definition of continuity or to different types of discontinuity (resilience and escalation) or to measurement sensitivity, which affects not only the magnitudes of observed continuity but also factors that correlate with this linkage. This study uses longitudinal data on 427 parent-child dyads from the Rochester IG Study to study continuity and discontinuity in substance use over ages 14-18. Results suggest that the degree of IG continuity, resilience, and escalation in adolescent substance use, as well as correlates of each, depend heavily on how heterogeneity in the behavior is taken into account.
Four general topics are discussed in this article. The first section uses data from the Rochester Youth Development Study to explore the development of antisocial careers across the life course. The ...second section presents interactional theory's explanation of offending. The theory recognizes that antisocial careers can begin at any point, from childhood through adulthood, and identifies causal influences associated with varying ages of onset. It then offers an explanation for changing patterns of offending. The third section presents an intergenerational extension of the theory, focusing specifically on the major pathways that mediate the impact of a parent's own adolescent antisocial behavior on the chances that his or her children will also show antisocial behavior. The final section tests key parts of this intergenerational theory using data from the Rochester Intergenerational Study. Adolescent antisocial behavior has indirect effects on a child's early delinquency, mediated by the disruption it causes to the parent's development and his or her subsequent style of parenting.
Abstract Purpose We examine two research questions. First, does a history of child maltreatment victimization significantly increase the likelihood of maltreatment perpetration during adulthood? ...Second, do safe, stable, and nurturing relationships (SSNRs) during early adulthood serve as direct protective factors, buffering protective factors, or both to interrupt intergenerational continuity in maltreating behaviors? Methods Data come from the Rochester Youth Development Study that followed a community sample from age 14 to 31 with 14 assessments. Maltreatment victimization records covering birth through age 17 were collected from Child Protective Services records as were maltreatment perpetration records from age 21 to 30. Data on five SSNRs were measured during three interviews from ages 21 to 23. Results There is a significant relationship between maltreatment victimization and maltreatment perpetration (odds ratio = 2.57; 95% confidence interval = 1.47–4.50). Three of the five SSNRs investigated—relationship satisfaction, parental satisfaction, and attachment to child—served as direct protective factors, significantly reducing risk for those who had been maltreated. However, none of the interaction terms—between maltreatment victimization and the SSNR—was statistically significant, indicating that the SSNRs did not serve as buffering protective factors Conclusions Although a history of maltreatment significantly increases the risk of subsequent perpetration of maltreatment, enhancing SSNRs with intimate partners and with children during early adulthood can decrease the odds that a victim of maltreatment will become a perpetrator. Mandated reporters and service providers should be aware of the risk posed by earlier maltreatment and be prepared to ameliorate that risk, in part by strengthening supportive social relationships.
The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between truancy and escalation of substance use during adolescence and to explore potential mechanisms of this relationship.
Using data from the ...Rochester Youth Development Study, a longitudinal sample of predominantly minority youth, growth models with time-varying covariates were utilized to assess the relationship between truancy and substance use. Mediated growth models were used to examine potential mechanisms of the relationship. The analyses used five waves of panel data collected from 971 youth and their primary caregivers. Data were collected every 6 months from 1988 to 1990, spanning ages 14-16. Twenty-seven percent of the sample was female.
Findings indicate that truant youth engaged in more substance use, both when comparing one adolescent with another (i.e., a truant adolescent used more substances than an adolescent who was not truant) and when comparing periods of change within an adolescent (i.e., during periods when an adolescent's truancy escalated, his or her involvement in substance use escalated). Moreover, the effect of escalation of truancy on escalation of substance use was, in part, mediated by escalation of risky, unsupervised time spent with peers.
Truancy appears to be a robust predictor of substance use. The effect is likely to be, in part, a result of the deleterious effects of reduced school bonding and, in part, a result of the unsupervised, risky time afforded by truancy. Gaining a better understanding of how truancy may affect substance use is important for the development of prevention and intervention initiatives.
Does substance use run in families? In this article, we examine both homotypic continuity in substance use-the impact of a parent's adolescent substance use on their child's adolescent substance ...use-and heterotypic continuity-the impact of a parent's adolescent substance use on their child's involvement in other adolescent problem behaviors. The analysis is based on data from the Rochester Youth Development Study (Thornberry, Lizotte, Krohn, Smith, & Porter, 2003) and its intergenerational component, the Rochester Intergenerational Study (Thornberry, 2009). The initial study began with a representative sample of 7th and 8th grade students followed until Age 31, and the intergenerational study is currently following their oldest biological child from childhood through adolescence. The final sample size in the current analysis consists of 341 parent-child dyads. For fathers, their adolescent substance use predicts both homotypic and heterotypic outcomes of their child. For mothers, however, there is no evidence of intergenerational continuity for either homotypic or heterotypic outcomes. In contrast, when the parent's adult substance use is examined, the opposite pattern emerges. The mother's adult substance use is a more consistent predictor of child behavioral outcomes, but there is little evidence that the father's adult behavior matters. Thus, it appears that the answer to the question of whether or not substance use runs in families is more nuanced than typically thought. Based on these results, continuity depends both on the sex of the parent and when in the parent's life-course substance use occurs.
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